


Call Me, But Texts Work Too

by zappedbysnow



Series: Coffee Never Sleeps [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-26 01:44:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7555303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zappedbysnow/pseuds/zappedbysnow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes when friends are being stupid, their friends need to take initiative.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Call Me, But Texts Work Too

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this series two years ago. I'm going to read through it again so I can finally put up the last chapter soon. Maybe even next week. :)

Tim was sure there was a better word to describe what he was doing because ‘stupidity’ seemed too tame in comparison. For three days, he’d been randomly staring at the screen of his cellphone, at the message he’d typed out the day before that, but could never get his thumb to press send.

 _Ugh._ This was all that man’s fault.

 _Jason._ He corrected himself as if he didn’t already know. He still had the torn piece of paper with his phone number burning a hole through his wallet, thank you very much.

If _Jason_ hadn’t given it to him, Tim wouldn’t be in this crisis.

It is a crisis, okay? He was unfocused. And anxious. And excited. And totally weirded out at the amount of stress he was having just because of that one piece of paper in his wallet.

It was uncharacteristic. This fidgety, nervous, giddy person wasn’t him. He wasn’t like this!

It was all Jason’s fault. Jason and his stupid gorgeous face. His stupid sexy smile. And his equally stupid brain melting voice.

Tim slapped a hand on his face and groaned then pressed cancel on his phone. _It’s no use. I can’t. What if he’s a pervert? A rapist? A serial killer?_ He flopped on his back on the bed, disturbing the pillows as he clutched the phone before letting it drop onto the sheets.

_I’m a wuss. No no… I’m cautious. Yep. That’s what I am._

“It’s no use.” He grumbled to no one. And it’s fortunate that–

“Talking to yourself again, boyfriend?”

He groaned again, tilted his head up, back arching a little to see Steph standing at the open doorway. “I should buy a new doorknob. Locked doors keep the crazies out.”

Steph snorted and flopped her ass onto the bed next to him. “What you should do is not forget your keys. That way, you won’t need to keep breaking your locks.”

“I was distracted that time.” He really was! “I had finals in Robotics, Steph. And I wasn’t done putting Red Bird’s wings together.”

“Yes. I’m sure you were, honey.” She patted his arm in a ‘there-there’ gesture. “And speaking of distracted, how’s the hot bad boy? Have you texted him yet? He hasn’t gone by the shop in five days. That’s not a good sign. I think he’s waiting for you to bring him back into our caffeinated warmth sprinkled with chocolatey goodness.”

Tim’s lips twitched. “Where do you even get those metaphors?”

“It’s one of my many talents, boyfriend.” She grinned and swiped his phone from the bed.

Tim didn’t even try to snatch it back. It was too much effort. Steph will just sit on him after she pokes and elbows him into submission and he didn’t really want to have to fight for his life and limb today on top of his ‘Jason Condition’.

“Hi. I feel really creepy doing this but you did give me your number so would you like to have lunch sometime? - Tim (the guy from the coffee shop)” Steph snickered as she read through his drafts. “This is really cute!”

“Stop reading my messages, Steph.” He made a half-hearted grab for his phone but the blonde raised her hand out of reach.

“Hey. Want to grab a bite sometime? Coffee’s on me. - Tim (the coffee shop guy)” Steph grinned and flicked his nose. “That was pretty casual. I’m so proud.”

“I am capable of being casual sometimes.” He put his palm out. “Gimme back my phone.”

She sniffed and pointedly ignored him. “You’re really obsessing about this. There are five different versions of the same text. Have you sent any of them? Did he reply?”

When he didn’t answer, he got smacked with a pillow to the face.

“I can’t believe you!” She smacked him again. “He probably thinks he freaked you out that’s why he’s not coming by anymore! Ugh! You’re an idiot.”

Tim raised his arms to stop another attack and grabbed the pillow. “Stop it!" 

"Hmph!” Steph sideeyed him before narrowing her eyes at the screen. He could tell her thumb was moving and bolted up in alarm, lunging for his phone, tackling Steph on the bed. She raised her arm above her head and cackled evilly. “You have sealed your fate, peasant!”

“What?!” He jack-knifed to a sitting position, reaching up and grabbed his phone.

“Yes! Sent!” She grinned in triumph.

His jaw dropped. His eyes were probably going to fall out of their sockets anytime now. “How could you?! You– and you call yourself my bestfriend?!”

“Of course I am. Best friends are supposed to get you in trouble and bail you out as necessary.” Her evil grin was totally unrepentant. “No more waiting. It’s time for you to act, boyfriend. Get some action in your life, and I don’t mean kickboxing and Aikido with me and Dickie.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

Tim could feel those invisible walls closing in on him. He was doomed. On the other hand…

_Maybe he was just messing with me and he wasn’t really interested. Maybe that wasn’t even his real number. Maybe he moved to a different state. Maybe his name wasn’t even Jason!_

He flopped back on the bed, feeling totally conflicted between being relieved and disappointed at the thought.

“Ow!” His yelp was muffled by the pillow to his face. He glared at Steph when she pulled it away.

“Don’t worry so much.” She smirked and ruffled his hair as she stood. “He’ll call you back.”

“How can you be so sure?” _Wait._ “Damnit.”

She smiled in that all-knowing way that was both cute and infuriating. “As North would say, 'I can feel it in my belly’.”

Well, if that was the case, all Tim could feel in his belly was the need to throw up.

–

Jason pushed his thumb and forefinger on either side of his temples to ease the throbbing pain in his head. It’s been a long hot day and spending it on top of a half constructed building under the direct heat of the sun in a hard hat was overkill. But he never complained because he knew everyone of his workers were in the same condition.

As the architect and foreman, he doesn’t need to do too much hard labor but he’d spent half his life working at construction sites he couldn’t resist doing a lot of the jobs hands-on.

He huffed out a sigh and walked to the trailer they set up as an office at the site and wished to hell the airconditioning was high enough to put North Pole to shame.

He was tired and hungry and his fingers twitched with the need to smoke but he wouldn’t. He’d fucking kicked that habit two years ago and though he indulges on rare occassions, this hell of a day didn’t warrant one. If he smoked everytime he was tired or stressed, he’d use it as a crutch. And then he’d be back to ground zero.

“You look like hell.” Roy, his engineer and asshole bestfriend, observed in lieu of a greeting when Jason entered the trailer.

“You go setting tiles in a bathroom in this heat, Harper. Let’s see if you don’t come out crispy.” He shot back and plopped down on his desk chair, leaning his head on the backrest and closing his eyes. 

“There’s some chocolate chip muffins and coffee from Bats. You want some?” Kory, his other best friend and business partner, whose desk faced his, pointed behind him to where Roy is sitting.

“Bats?” That got his eyes open and his chair swiveling to Roy’s direction.

“That was a quick recovery.” Roy’s obvious amusement made Jason scowl.

He got up, heavy boots thudding on the trailer as he glowered at the red-head. He flipped the lid on the cupcake box that he missed going in and snatched a red velvet cupcake. He took the tall mocha frappe next to it, welcoming the cold plastic cup in his hand. He scowled at Roy and took the treats to his desk, pausing to give Kory a smile before settling in his chair. “Thanks, Kory.”

Jason didn’t know how they would survive without her. She did the marketing, got them contracts and kicked their asses to get them in line. She was the most important part of their team. Without her, he and Roy would be professional bums.

She nodded with a smile back. “Roy paid for those.”

He shot his friend, his brother, by all means except in name, a narrow-eyed look. “I wonder why…”

Roy smirked. “Because I’m an awesome big bro. I know you’re itching to ask, man. So ask.”

Jason’s eye twitched. He was dying for information. Anything at all about Tim this past week. He was randomly cranky and spacing out, wondering if he should go to the coffee shop to see him. He won’t even talk to him or stare… Much. He’ll even do the staring covertly under the guise of reading the paper. There really wasn’t much to look forward to in the morning without Tim’s smile and husky voice as he gave him his customary, 'Enjoy your coffee.’

And unlike smoking, his Tim addiction did good things for his disposition. It was stupid but he missed the happy giddy feeling of crushing on someone. Heh. Fuck. He was like a thirteen year old schoolgirl.

“Seriously, you’re not even the least bit curious?” Roy taunted as Jason ignored him and focused on his glorious cupcake and iced mocha frappe. “He’s about 5'9, average build with black hair and big sky blue eyes right? Because, I’m pretty sure that was him with lopsided little pigtails on either side of his head talkin’ to this big good-lookin’ dude who looked like he could bench 300 easy. He was makin’ him laugh too. Probably trying to ask him out with the way the kid’s blushing…”

Jason was scowling and sucking at his frappe with a vengeance that the plastic cup was folding in on itself. He stuffed his mouth with cake to keep himself from asking for more details. 

“I mean, really. It’s been what? A week? You’ve been grumpy for a damn week, man. It’s really annoying.”

He shot Roy a death glare when the guy chucked a stressball at the back of his head.

“Quit moping around and go back to your morning routine. If you really don’t want to creep him out, don’t ask him about it. Just, go drink his hot mochachino and suck on his creamy latte… You know you want to.”

Jason gave Kory a look when she snickered at that. “Shut up, guys.”

If that guy was putting moves on Tim and he was reciprocating then he’s probably out of the game. After all, it’s been almost  a week and Tim hadn’t texted him at all. Feeling more grumpy, he took his phone out of his backpocket and glanced at the screen. He was about to set it on the table when he saw he had a message.

It was an unknown number but he dutifully read it. It could be one of the crew needing something important.

_Hey, Jason. You gave me your number at the coffee shop? So yeah. Hi. I’m Tim._

He sucked in a breath. His heart stopped. Wait. No. Now it was thudding so hard in his chest. _Holy…_

“Roy…”

Roy was saying something that he couldn’t understand over the rush of blood in his ears.

“Roy!” Jason flailed his hand, still staring at his screen.

“What?!” Roy demanded, rushing to his side. He offered his phone and Roy peered at it. Then he got slapped on the back so hard, he almost faceplanted on his desk. “He texted you! Hey, Kor! Tim texted him.”

Now Kory was at his table too and peering at his phone. “What are you waiting for?” She prompted. “Reply to him! That was sent three hours ago, Jay!”

Roy and Kory looked at each other. “That was _before_ we saw him being cute with the other dude! Christ! Reply already!”

Jason let out a laugh of amused disbelief. “I didn’t know this was a team sport.”

“Geez.” Roy grabbed his phone and stepped back before Jason could stop him.

Roy’s thumbs flew on the screen and Jason could only watch in horror and guess at whatever it was he was typing. Then again, Roy had always been good with that sort of thing so he was probably fine. _Maybe._

_Oh fuck…_

“Roy, don’t fucking put any cheesy oneliners in there.” He made a mad grab for his phone and stared at the sent message.

_Hey, Tim. Glad to hear from you! Does this mean I can stop biting my nails now?_

“Ooh. Real smooth, Roy.” He raised an eyebrow at the guy. “I don’t bite my nails, asshole.”

“Yeah. You jog your knee instead.” Roy rolled his eyes. “Just wait, man. The guy let a week go by before he texted you. Either he got too many proposals or he’s really shy and freaked out. I’m leaning on the latter.”

“Or he could be devious and let me stew on it because he knew I’m interested enough to–”

“Suck his creamy latte?” Roy waggled his eyebrows.

“I’m going break your face if you don’t shut up, man.” It wasn’t much of a threat since he was on the verge of laughing hysterically. “Do us both a favor and keep your dirty mouth in the drawer with the rest of your toys.”

Kory laughed at sat on the edge of the desk. “You can’t blame him for helping, Jay. You have been pretty grumpy all week.”

“See?” Roy gestured at his girlfriend and gave her a peck on the lips. “Thanks, babe.”

Jason was saved from replying when his phone chimed. He grabbed it and all three of them peered at the screen.

_But it’s been a few days… Do you even have any nails left?_

Roy grinned. “I like this kid.” He slapped Jason’s back. “Okay. My job is done. It’s all on you now, Jay. Don’t fuck it up. And you’re welcome.”

They went back to their desks since there was still an hour to go before they stopped for the day.

Jason smiled at Tim’s reply. His smile widened as he typed.

_My hero! You saved me from myself. I was just about to start on my toes…_

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me at my [tumblr](http://snowzapped.tumblr.com/). :)


End file.
